Western drama, having all but disappeared during the Dark Ages, reemerged spontaneously in the liturgy and life of the medieval church. Vernacular miracle plays of England's Middle Ages were performed by lay people many by trade guilds unschooled in church Latin, but familiar with the biblical events upon which the dramas were based. Morality plays provided moral instruction, their principal characters vivid personifications of virtue and vice. The most durable of the morality plays has proven to be Everyman, whose central character, summoned by Death, must face final judgment on the strength...
Western drama, having all but disappeared during the Dark Ages, reemerged spontaneously in the liturgy and life of the medieval church. Vernacular mir...
Born in a Virginia slave hut, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) rose to become the most influential spokesman for African Americans of his day. In this eloquently written book, he describes events in a remarkable life that began in bondage and culminated in worldwide recognition for his many accomplishments. In simply written yet stirring passages, he tells of his impoverished childhood and youth, the unrelenting struggle for an education, early teaching assignments, his selection in 1881 to head Tuskegee Institute, and more. A firm believer in the value of education as the best route to...
Born in a Virginia slave hut, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) rose to become the most influential spokesman for African Americans of his day. In this...
Mad surgeon-turned-vivisectionist performs ghoulish experiments that transform animals into men. Early Wells personification of the scientific quest to control the natural world and, ultimately, human nature.
Mad surgeon-turned-vivisectionist performs ghoulish experiments that transform animals into men. Early Wells personification of the scientific quest t...
In an era of revolutions demanding greater liberties for mankind, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an ardent feminist who spoke eloquently for countless women of her time. Having witnessed firsthand the devastating results of male improvidence, she assumed an independent role early in life, educating herself and eventually earning a living as a governess, teacher and writer. She was also an esteemed member of the radical intellectual circle that included William Godwin (father of her daughter, novelist Mary Godwin Shelley, and later her husband), Thomas Paine, William Blake, Henry...
In an era of revolutions demanding greater liberties for mankind, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an ardent feminist who spoke eloquently for coun...
First published in 1888, Looking Backward was one of the most popular novels of its day. Translated into more than 20 languages, its utopian fantasy influenced such thinkers as John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Eugene V. Debs, and Norman Thomas. Writing from a 19th century perspective and poignantly critical of his own time, Bellamy advanced a remarkable vision of the future, including such daring predictions as the existence of radio, television, motion pictures, credit cards, and covered pedestrian malls. On the surface, the novel is the story of time-traveler Julian West, a young...
First published in 1888, Looking Backward was one of the most popular novels of its day. Translated into more than 20 languages, its utopian...
Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later was involved in negotiating the peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War. He also invented bifocals, a stove that is still manufactured, a water-harmonica, and the lightning rod. Franklin's extraordinary range of interests and accomplishments are brilliantly recorded in his Autobiography, considered one of the classics of the genre. Covering his life up to his prewar...
Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He help...
Great story of human courage and dedication recounted in autobiography of a remarkable woman: the magical moment when Miss Keller first recognizes the connection between words and objects, her joy at learning how to speak, friendships with notable figures, her education at Radcliffe and an extraordi
Great story of human courage and dedication recounted in autobiography of a remarkable woman: the magical moment when Miss Keller first recognizes the...
Considered lurid and shocking by mid-19th-century standards, Wuthering Heights was initially thought to be such a publishing risk that its author, Emily Bronte, was asked to pay some of the publication costs. A somber tale of consuming passions and vengeance played out against the lonely moors of northern England, the book proved to be one of the most enduring classics of English literature. The turbulent and tempestuous love story of Cathy and Heathcliff spans two generations -- from the time Heathcliff, a strange, coarse young boy, is brought to live on the Earnshaws' windswept...
Considered lurid and shocking by mid-19th-century standards, Wuthering Heights was initially thought to be such a publishing risk that its a...
At convent school, a girl acquires romantic notions of a lover who will live for her alone. She marries a kind but dull country doctor and discovers that "This life of hers was as cold as an attic that looks north; and boredom, quiet as the spider, was spinning its web in the shadowy places of her heart." Emma Bovary's quest for escape from the emptiness of her bourgeois existence leads to infidelity and financial extravagance, and Gustave Flaubert's powerful and deeply moving examination of her moral degeneration is universally regarded as a landmark of nineteenth-century...
At convent school, a girl acquires romantic notions of a lover who will live for her alone. She marries a kind but dull country doctor and discovers t...
From the preeminent prose satirist in the english language, a great classic recounting the 4 remarkable journeys of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver. For children it remains an enchangting fantasy; for adults, a witty parody of political life in Swift's time and a scathing send-up of manners and morals in 18th-century England. Reprint of the Revised 1735 edition.
From the preeminent prose satirist in the english language, a great classic recounting the 4 remarkable journeys of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver. Fo...
